More Extreme Couponing clips

Did you end up watching Extreme Couponing on TLC last night? I was at volleyball practice and don’t have cable, but am really curious if you liked it or not.

Time magazine calls it “more ‘Horders’ than how-to.” TV Guide has an interview with one extreme couponer who fights claims that she is a hoarder. Andhile Entertainment Weekly says the show is a canny blend of two themes of current American culture.

The first is a fascination with extreme behavior as it’s filtered through reality-TV, whether we’re talking about people who sire a lot of children (hello, Duggar family) or who stuff their bodies with a lot of drugs (hello, Intervention and Relapse). The second is the fact that a lot of people don’t have as much money as they used to. It’s the economy, not-stupid!

If you missed it, watch two more previews below.

Yesterday readers were intrigued by Extreme Couponing previews. Julie said she is drawn to it “like a moth to a flame.” Concetta defended one man featured on Extreme Couponing, saying he has donated 1,000 boxes of cereal to charity. Tara wanted to learn more about stocking up for cheap. Jo said the show was better than other reality TV.

Comments

I watched it. I was horrified by some of it, knowing our friends in retail are going to be wondering when the onslaught will come to them. And several of the things shown in the show were flat out wrong to do, or something I would consider unethical (like the woman who has to call 5 friends to do her transactions).

I can’t wait to get to the one where Nathan makes over 1000 military care packages.

That’s what I want to know – how to purchase a lot of stuff for donation for the little bit of charity money I have.

I wish they would show more of the “how to” of this. I saw a little of it with the episode last night, but with all the sensationalism and strange characters who agreed to be on this show, it has to be disheartening to anyone watching.

I wish they’d show more stuff like I do: Last night’s trip to CVS was a usual for me – I was near out of toothpaste and laundry soap, and I’m preparing to dye my hair so I needed some good color holding shampoos/conditioners. And the Allegra’s for my allergies:

That’s what I wish they’d show. Ordinary Americans who just want to spend less than retail price. I got everything necessary at home (and I don’t have a stockpile LOL), I used my coupons and I saved 95.5% of retail cost.

It struck me as kind of strange and not particularly frugal. One woman bought 77 bottles of mustard because between the sale price and the coupon she got it for 39 cents per bottle. Her husband said while she was filling the cart that he doesn’t like mustard. I can see buying a couple of bottles to stock up, but how is spending $30 on 77 bottles of mustard when you can only use at most 10 before they expire frugal? A couple of the people they profiled had hundreds of boxes of cereal and rolls of paper towels and toilet paper stacked in their garages. To me, buying stuff you don’t need is not frugal no matter how good the price.

@Jennifer I totally agree with you. Buying 77 bottles of mustard is nuts. I would rather leave a deal for someone else than buy it just to say I got it. I think this lady lost the point of coupon clipping – to be able to feed your family on a tight budget and possibly make a charitable donation.

@Sarah I heard that the show was not big on the “how to” part, which means it’s really just for voyeuristic entertainment. How many people will watch Extreme Couponing and try it themselves?

A lot of these people on the show seem to have a sickness – a need to stockpile things, whether or not they’ll even be able to use it all, or whether or not they like the item (as in the mustard example, Jennifer discussed above).

But, that being said, I also wish this show would demonstrate more of the how to. I would definitely consider stockpiling certain items -like toilet paper, paper towels, kleenex, cereal – things that my family run through very quickly. I don’t know how these people do it – where do they get all the coupons, how do they get around store purchase limits, etc.

I was completed in aww of the show. I couldnâ€™t stop watching. Saving that much money is so crazyâ€¦the one girl had a 2, 000 grocery bill and paid 6 bucks..really?! Even though I was wishing I would do that and save 40, 000 a year like the one girl said she didâ€¦I was thinking why someone would need 250 boxes of noodles. I mean if you are doing it to give to a charity or food bank that is great but if youâ€™re keeping it for yourself a family of 2 or 3…what a waste. I mean the family who had 6 kids and was taking care of her parentsâ€¦Ok I can see having to buy a lot. But most do it for the high of a great deal not because they need it. Besides the show being unrealistic for most people who just want to save $100 on a grocery bill the show was pretty entertaining. I will keep watching and hopefully they will show some more â€œhow toâ€ and not just who got the biggest save.

I would agree that these folks have the hoarder gene. Rationalize it how you may, but taken to the level that they operate at, it is not healthy. How unfortunate that none of these folks mentioned giving anything away to charity.

I think you have to have a really accommodating store to be able to do this stuff. And where are they shopping? I don’t know any store that gives $10 off/$50 – I’ve seen $10 off your next purchase but you have to spend $50 after all coupons, etc. have been taken off. I fear their double days are numbered – in CA they’ll only double for up to $1 off total and now that Kroger has announced the end of double coupons in the Houston area it’s only a matter of time before the infection spreads.

@Jen B – Safeway stores run the coupons every few months. Dominick’s just had one around here, and it was your pre-coupon total had to be $50. I’ve planned my purchases well and did quite well with that.

In Illinois, they don’t even double anything from any store. That’s the other thing that irks me from the show – there’s lots of people who don’t have doubles available and need to know how to do this without that capability.

If all these couponing hoarders came together and donated to the needy, there would be no one left hungry in the world for a very, very long time. It was sickening to watch the first featured lady with her husband and 2 dogs haul up boxes and boxes of pasta, and the other lady neatly organizing them so all the labels face up uniformly? Really?

Kudos to the guy who gave all those cereal boxes (the healthy one too) to his city’s food bank and to the African-American lady who shopped smartly by only buying grocery she really needs and using reusable bags (which gave a 5c. credit).

I could not stop watching. I was taking mental notes of how make your coupons work. However, some of the people werea bit extreme. The only thing I would stock up that could last me years are paper goods, household items and soaps. The mustard purchase was crazy unless you have a hotdog stand. I also noticed that in order to really save as they did you would need to go to stores that double. Unfortunately the stores here in los angeles do not. After the one guy mentioned buying coupons online I immediately signed up with a site and did the same. Over all I’m loving the show and I look forward to next week.

I used to think I was pretty good at sniffing out great deals at my local supermarkets and pharmacies, but these “extremists” puts me to shame. Back in the day when Ralphs used to accept expired coupons, I had a stockpile of coupons that I kept organized in a nifty orginazation pouch. I remember tallying up close to $100 on my shopping trips and paying under $5 after my manufacturer’s double coupons, in-store coupons and shopper’s card discounts. It did take some time to organize my coupons and to plan out my attack strategy before hitting the markets for the week, but I would not spend the kind of time these extremists do to cancel dinner plans and forfeit a quality life with family and friends. There has to be a sensible balance. Julia has defined the difference between being frugal and being cheap. I think extreme couponers have a form hoarding disorder, though it’s highly organized and their “collection” is all useful. When each of the subjects showed off their storage rooms with pride, I was impressed by their dedication and to how neatly everything was organized. I am glad that Nathan donated his haul of Total cereal. But he also purchased a boat load of deodorant sticks and toothbrushes. I have been watching Secret Millionaire and one millionaire ran into a small business owner that created bathroom packets out of zip lock bags and passed them out to the people on skid row. I’m sure Nathan and all the other extreme couponers do use the products they hunt for, but I also hope that they have enough compassion and common sense to realize that they cannot use up all that stuff and take the time to create makeshift hygienic care packages too or donate them to a local Goodwill or Red Cross center for redistribution. I never knew a checkout system could crash after so many transactions. That was a new one for me. I have no problems with dumpster diving for coupons. Julia has done it, and for food too. But the other couponers that buy multiple papers and pay the services of coupon companies need to factor in those expenses against their final receipt total. And the person that bought all that mustard, most of it will go bad before she gets to use it. And worst of all, it wasn’t free. That shows total lack of basic common sense. These extreme couponers also devote so much of their free time to planning the next big score, that would they not actually be better off using that time to work and make money than to “the money they save?” I’ll continue to use coupons as I have been doing. But I’ll leave the extreme couponing to the “pros.” I just hope their houses don’t burn to the ground or get invaded by a pestilence of biblical proportions. That would be….sad.

I watched an episode of extreme couponing on TLC a few months ago, and to me they are just hoarders.

It is kind of impressive to see a bill of over a thousand dollars down to about $20.00, but how much of that will be used. It’s not actually saving if you throw out half of what you bought.

I did see the guy that was donating a palate worth of cereal and that was cool to see, but they all also had rooms, or garages, or both full of stuff that they could never hope to use.

Saving money is great, buying a bunch of stuff because it’s cheap isn’t great at all. it’s wasteful and generally won’t save much money in the long run because you are paying for more house than you need just to store stuff and much of it will expire before it can be used.

I was only able to watch the first half of the premiere, and found it more amusing than any reality show about alcohol or drug addiction, or hoarding.

My current “strategy” is buying one Sunday paper, coupon stacking and comparing Ralphs v. Rite Aid v. Target (including rebate programs, reward programs, and BYO bags), and my current “stockpile” is only two per item – I really don’t have the room!

Thus, I don’t foresee paying a clipping service or dumpster diving for coupons, as my husband has a job where his meals are paid for, and my toddler and I fend for ourselves.

Much of what was featured was admirable – the savings, of course; the discipline of one woman; the charity by one man; and the organizational skills of others (researching, planning) – but seeing some stockpiles had my head spinning. Like bottles and bottles of salad dressing – could these folks honestly get through that much before the expiration dates?

Still, I was intrigued enough to have a wait-and-see attitude to see if there will be anything helpful in future episodes. Given the premiere, I at least now hope to be more mindful of how sales rotate and seasonal sales.

I agree that most of them are hoarders & get a high from scoring a deal. The African-American retired nurse was helping others to buy healthy food & get bargains with coupons & sales. She gets it. She should teach a class in it!! I hope they show more people like her.

Not the show I was hoping to see which was a show with real advice on how to save or even get paid for buying an item (they featured a few of those but not HOW to DO it on a large scale). Shame the idea of extreme couponing is really wasted unless you want to watch this crazed offshoot of hoarding. As everyone else has stated WHY buy so much you couldn’t use within a year? And why not TLC concentrate on people who donate lots of their overages to food banks, etc? Your name use to be THE LEARNING CHANNEL! This show could rename you THE LOSERS CHANNEL!

I thought it was great that some of these couponers were donating their food to the homeless. What I didn’t like was the fact that many of these couponers were buying and storing too much food that would be spoiled before they ate it. The one lady bought 150 full size candy bars. Does anybody ever need to store that many candy bars in their house?

I was particularly turned off by the woman who got up at the crack of dawn to go to the grocery store & then had to call five friends so she could buy everything with all the coupons. I was also wondering what store(s) would want to devote the time of one cashier for long enough to ring up the huge orders & deduct all the coupons. They have to redeem those coupons with the clearing houses in order to get credit for them, which also takes time & effort. I agree about people buying more than they can use, although I do see the advantage in buying non-perishable things like cleaning supplies & paper products. I missed the one about the man who donated all the cereal to charity but watched the two half hour segments after that. The women seemed to be on a mission & I wondered how int he world they had time to do anything else other than clip coupons & shop. I might watch it again if nothing else is on that I would rather see, but only for ideas I hadn’t thought of. My friend who lives in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area also commented a few days ago that Kroger in that area would be discontinuing double coupons.

@ Concetta: way to go on the CVS. I totally agree we need to be taught how to use the coupons/cards effectively. I don’t have the room or patience to stockpile/hoard items until their all needed. There are literally empty food pantries in my community. I fear a backlash will come from coupon fraud being featured on TLC too, then it will be harder for the those of us following the rules to garner the savings we need.

My name is Desiree Mandelbaum, and I am a Casting Director for a new docu-series about people who “Eat for free”. I was curious about couponing, it looks awesome. Would you be interested in speaking with me? We are casting nationwide and would LOVE to get in contact with people, and see there different techniques on eating for free. Attached is our written verbiage about our casting. Thoughts?

Do you get a thrill out of spending little to no money on food?
Do you dedicate your life to scoring meals in clever ways?

Have you perfected the art of dumpster diving, coupon clipping to an obsessive degree, or bartering your way to a full stomach?

Do you crash events, meetings and open houses
just for the free feast?

This all-new series for a major cable network will explore the lives of people who have mastered the art of eating for free. We will follow individuals who dedicate their lives to acquiring food in crafty ways and revel in the thrill of their success.

If you are a resourceful renegade who has forged a way of living that enables you to eat practically for free, whatever your reason/strategy may be,
We want to meet you!

To be considered, please send us your name and contact info, along with a brief bio explaining your specific situation and approach to eating for free. Make sure to include a recent photo of yourself and send email to: castingcookie@gmail.com